United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Prior to the 2017 contest, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing the United Kingdom fifty-nine times.^[1] Thus far, it has won the contest five times: in 1967 with the song "Puppet on a String" performed by Sandie Shaw, in 1969 with the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang" performed by Lulu, in 1976 with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" performed by Brotherhood of Man, in 1981 with the song "Making Your Mind Up" performed by Bucks Fizz, and in 1997 with the song "Love Shine a Light" performed by Katrina and the Waves. To this point, the nation is noted for having finished as the runner-up in a record fifteen contests. Up to and including 1998, the UK had only twice finished outside the top 10, in 1978 and 1987. Since 1999, the year in which the rule was abandoned that songs must be performed in one of the official languages of the country participating, the UK has had less success, thus far only finishing within the top ten twice: in 2002 with the song "Come Back" performed by Jessica Garlick and in 2009 with the song "It's My Time" performed by Jade Ewen. For the 2016 contest, the United Kingdom finished in twenty-fourth place out of twenty-six competing entries with the song "You're Not Alone" performed by Joe and Jake.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, the BBC organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster announced that it would participate in the 2017 contest on 6 October 2016.^[2] Between 2011 and 2015, BBC opted to internally select the British entry, while the broadcaster organised a national final featuring a competition among several artists and songs in 2016. For their 2017 entry, BBC announced that a national final involving a public vote would be held to select United Kingdom's entry.

Eurovision: You Decide was the national final developed by the BBC in order to select the British entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Six acts competed in a televised show on 27 January 2017 held at the Eventim Apollo venue in Hammersmith, London and hosted by Mel Giedroyc. The winner was selected through the combination of the votes of a professional jury and a public vote.^[3] The show was broadcast on BBC Two as well as streamed online via the BBC iPlayer.^[4][5] The national final was watched by 1.26 million viewers in the United Kingdom with a market share of 6.6%.^[6]

On 6 October 2016, BBC announced an open submission for interested artists to submit their songs in the form of a video recording. The submission period lasted until 1 November 2016. The received submissions from the open call were reviewed and a shortlist was compiled by the UK branch of the international OGAE fan club. Additional entries were provided to the BBC by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) which ran a songwriting competition amongst its members. The BBC also held multiple songwriting camps and collaborated with the former music director of RCA Records and founder of Innocent Records, Hugh Goldsmith, to consult with music industry experts including writers, producers, artist managers and members of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in order to encourage entry submissions and involvement in the national final. Songs from all entry methods were included in a final shortlist which was presented to a professional panel that ultimately selected six finalists to compete in the national final.^[2] The six competing songs were premiered during The Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2 on 23 January 2017.^[4]

Six acts competed in the televised final on 27 January 2017.^[4] In addition to their performances, guest performers included previous Eurovision Song Contest winner Alexander Rybak, who won the contest for Norway in 2009 with the song "Fairytale", and The Vamps performing their song "All Night".^[7][8]

A combination of the votes from an eight-member professional jury and a public vote consisting of televoting and online voting selected the winner.^[9][10] A combination of the votes from an eight-member professional jury and a public vote consisting of televoting and online voting selected the winner. The jury and public vote each created a ranking from which points from 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest) were awarded, and after both sets of points were combined, "Never Give Up on You" performed by Lucie Jones was the winner.^[11] Three of the jury members also provided feedback regarding the songs during the show. The members were Bruno Tonioli (choreographer, dancer and television personality), Sophie Ellis-Bextor (singer-songwriter) and CeCe Sammy (vocal and performance coach).^[12][13]

Following the national final, Lucie Jones revealed during an interview on BBC Breakfast that she and the BBC would be seeking to make changes to "Never Give Up on You", stating they had listened to feedback from viewers on social media and would look at ideas at how to make it better. The new version of the song was recorded at Tileyard Studios in late February 2017 and presented to the public on 11 March 2017 through the release of the official music video via the official Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel.^[14]

Lucie Jones specifically promoted "Never Give Up on You" as the British Eurovision entry on 8 April by performing during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.^[15] In addition to her international appearances, on 2 April, Jones performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.^[16] On 28 April, Jones was part of the guest line-up for the BBC One programme The Graham Norton Show where she performed "Never Give Up on You" live and was interviewed by host Graham Norton.^[17]